Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal February 2006 Volume 4(1)

Aiming Higher

Quality and eQuality

Jill Evans rounds up examples of co-operation and sharing of expertise in the quality field amongst her colleagues.

SCURL member institutions strive to deliver quality information services and e-quality of access to their users. Quality is defined by Universities Scotland as “The measure of the experience of the student during their Higher Education career.” A recent event organised by the SCURL Special Needs Group attracted representation from across the library sectors in Scotland, whose responsibility is to ensure that their users have equal access to resources and buildings regardless of the users’ impairments of physical, sensory, reading, writing or other difficulties.

A presentation from the UK charity AbilityNet focused on adaptive technologies which could assist users to make more comprehensive use of keyboards and monitors. AbilityNet’s aim “...is to bring the benefits of computer technology to adults and children with disabilities”, and it was demonstrated that, with little investment by the library, it was possible to make pcs more accessible (see Successful Computing On A Low Budget).
Their website has many fact sheets and skills sheets available to download. If you wish, for example, to adapt your mouse for left-handed users.

Equality of access to libraries by users of other institutions was a subject discussed by the SCURL Access Group and this followed the introduction of both the SCONUL Research Extra scheme, which was designed as a passport to the libraries of higher education institutions, and UK Libraries Plus, which is a co-operative venture between most of the UK’s higher education libraries.

The SCURL Research Extra service was primarily aimed at those SCURL member libraries which were not eligible for membership of the SCONUL Research Extra scheme. The SCURL Research Extra card and guidelines enable users to visit and use the collections in other SCURL libraries, such as the Glasgow School of Art and the Edinburgh College of Art. The initiative is receiving favourable responses: a number of other SCURL members are interested in establishing quality of access to other libraries for their users. The table of access is being updated to reflect the members’ current affiliations to various access schemes. Interestingly, there is a positive side to geographically distant campuses, as the Scottish Agricultural College has campuses in Craibstone Estate near Aberdeen, Auchincruive Estate near Ayr, and Edinburgh both at the Kings’ Buildings and at the Bush Estate, south of Edinburgh. The college therefore benefits from membership of the local groups such as Grampian Information, TAFLIN (Tayside Library and Information Network), ALF (Ayrshire Libraries Forum) and ELISA (Edinburgh Libraries and Information Services Agency).

An Affiliated Group of SCURL is the Rare Books in Scotland Group, which seeks to share information and best practice among staff with responsibility for rare books in any type of library or other organisation. Their aim is to improve services for users and maximise resources through collaborative activities such as workshops. For the third January in succession, the National Library of Scotland Rare Books staff offered practical workshops on the basics of rare book cataloguing and on bibliographical format. As in previous years, there was demand for this training but it could be considered a testament to the quality of the information being conveyed that the workshop was fully subscribed within a few days of advertising.

Another SCURL member institution, Bell College in Hamilton, has as its Mission Statement: “To provide high quality education, training and advice at Higher Education level...” In support of this, Bectis, a subscription-based business information service was established in 1976 to serve the information needs of local industry. Enquiries are answered using the stock and expertise of staff in the Bell College Library but the academic staff with their wide range of expertise in practical and theoretical information also contribute. Access to a complete and maintained reference set of British Standards is advertised which compliments subject areas such as Quality Management, Environmental Management and Government Publications.

The Scottish Further Education Unit (SFEU) recently hosted a Community of Practice Chair of Chairs meeting with the remit of exchanging information on the training events and conferences organised during 2005 and 2006. The members were Chairs of the various areas of Further Education and Colleges such as Business Development, Guidance, Human Resources, ICT, Marketing, Librarians, and Quality. It became apparent during the meeting that the network of activity, partnerships, and cross-sectoral working with which Librarians have become accustomed was regarded with respect, and a little awe, by the other areas represented. A further meeting has been scheduled with the Head of Centre of College Development to share the various networks, groups, and associations with which Libraries and Librarians are involved as the College Development wishes to learn from our experience.

The quality and variety of partnership working within the library sector is vital if we wish to continue learning from our colleagues to improve our services – and to share that experience with other business sectors.

Jill Evans is Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries (SCURL) Service Development Manager.

Information Scotland Vol. 4(1) February 2006

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.